Description of a Memory

Nearly 50 years after Chris Marker’s landmark 1961 documentary about Israel, Description of a Struggle, Dan Geva’s film engages with and pays tribute to its progenitor. Clearly Marker’s film left a lasting impression on the Israeli-born Geva, who uses images from the original film as a springboard to uncovering the many changes that have taken place in the physical and political landscapes of Israel and in its inhabitants. Attempting to answer questions originally raised by Marker, Geva tracks down some of the people featured in Marker’s film (what did happen to that young girl at the easel?), with surprising and emotionally complex results. Description of a Memory is an intimate portrait of the nature of change in a multifaceted land where history and memories intertwine to create an odyssey both personal and universal.

Dan Geva was born in 1964 in Haifa, Israel, served in an elite Zahal (Army) combat unit; and completed one-year of cinema studies in "Camera Obscura", Haifa. In 1990, Geva continued his studies at the Jerusalem Film & Television School, graduating in 1994 with distinction. TAKE NOW YOUR SON is his fiction diploma film, winning a Special Prize at the 1995 Montecatini International Film Festival.